Two of his students, Josh Minter and Pickett Brault, juniors, placed second statewide out of more than 200 teams. Each team across the state had $100,000 of fake money to invest.

Minter and Brault earned more than $17,000 on an investment of $100,000, or 17 percent in just over two months.

Theres really no other way you can learn about this than real life, Brault said. Being able to do it with fake money and learn along the way is really great. We learned its OK to gamble, but dont gamble too much. Things can fluctuate overnight.

Minter and Brault kicked off the game by picking stocks that affected their everyday life, such as Facebook. Of their investments, Target, JP Morgan and Wal-Mart were the most successful.

This is the second year Batts students have competed in The Stock Market Game, and the first time theyve placed in the top tier of state competitors.